The crypto operation hijacking the BBC (from Top Comment)
4/27/202610 min
Recommended listening from Top Comment, the BBC podcast that investigates what's blowing up online.
In this clip from the latest episode Marianna Spring and Matt Shea look at the highly convincing fake BBC news articles that are being promoted on Truth social and other major sites. One example, which describes a fictional altercation on Question Time between Nigel Farage and the governor of the Bank of England, appears to be an elaborate attempt to promote a murky crypto operation.
To listen to the rest of the episode and to hear more stories about what's blowing up online, search "Top Comment" on BBC Sounds.
Top Comment is hosted by Marianna Spring and Matt Shea. The series producer is Laurie Kalus. The social producer is Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The editor is Justine Lang. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMarianna Spring· Host0:00
Hello, it's Marianna Spring here. If you enjoyed Jamie's Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares, then I think you'll like this little bit from the latest episode of my new podcast called Top Comment, where Matt Shea and I talk about the fake BBC News articles circulating online and who might be spreading them. I hope you enjoy it, and if you'd like to hear the full episode, just search Top Comment on BBC Sounds. [upbeat music] So we get lots of messages from people listening to Top Comment, and, um, I had this link that was sent to me by a couple of different people actually, an account called @londoncleaning19 sent me a DM saying, "Sending you this fake news link to an AI site which seems to have something to do with Nigel Farage, but I think this is a fake news item." And then I had the same link sent to me by, uh, another person, a woman called Hannah via email who said that she'd seen it popping up as well. And I decided to take a bit of a look at it because, uh, when I clicked on it, I was like, wow, this really looks like a BBC News article. Like the we- the bit of the website, like the bar at the top, the different sections, the headline, the font, even the names of the reporters, uh, who've allegedly written this not real article, um, are people that actually do work for the BBC and write stuff for the BBC website. And essentially the headline is y- quote, "You're lying to millions of hardworking Britons. How Nigel Farage exposed the Bank of England's elite secret on live television." And it's got this image of Nigel Farage pointing his finger at a sort of AI generated version of the governor of the Bank of England, and Fiona Bruce, who presents Question Time is in the middle. And then the whole article is about this incident